Chapter 19

By the time they got home, Arrian's hand had completely healed, although a small amount of dried blood remained on the back of it.

It was late, so Arrian carried a sleeping Sarah into her bedroom and tucked her in before going to bed himself.

Arrian was surrounded in total darkness; he turned from one direction to another trying to see something.

He attempted to yell in an attempt to catch someone's attention. Trying as much as he could he couldn't get his mouth to make one single sound.

He heard something approaching him, from which direction he wasn't sure, but he could hear it.

Suddenly the ground shook as if a massive earthquake was taking place. For minutes it seemed the ground was constantly moving.

Suddenly in the darkness, Arrian could begin to make out some shapes. The shapes appeared gigantic in size as they approached, Arrian grew slightly nervous; he didn't like this one bit.

Closing his eyes, he called to his sword, the Wind Soul, but it never came. That alone frightened Arrian...

A small bit of light, lit up the approaching figures, Arrian paled as he looked at them with fear.

Four of the most massive dragons ever imagined, were standing before him.

One was a dark forest green, with what seemed like sand colored spikes protruding from its joints.

The next was a blood chilling red, with black spikes instead of the sand colored ones.

The next one was a deep blue; so shiny it seemed impossible. It lacked the spikes of the previous two, but this one had a small mane of white hair behind its head.

The last was a gold colored dragon, similar to the blue shinny dragon; it also had a mane of hair only it was blonde.

Arrian was wary, but he figured if they meant him harm he would have been dragon dinner by now.

He tried to say something but nothing came out.

The green dragon suddenly moved forward, and opened its wings.

They were massive, if Arrian had to venture a guess he would say one hundred feet from tip to tip.

It rose into the air, suddenly a strong light burst from its chest, a small orb remained where the green dragon once flew; the orb floated a few moments more, before it rushed at Arrian.

Arrian to move out of the way, but he didn't make it.

The orb hit his chest, and the pain he felt was so great, he screamed out, but again no sound came from his mouth.

The orb forced its way inside. Once it was one fully inside, Arrian stopped screaming as quickly as he started.

He felt all around his body, and was happy to discover he was still intact. What made him feel more at ease was the lack of blood.

The red dragon looked at the other three dragons before stepping forward.

He stood directly in front of Arrian, towering over him.

He opened his wings and closed them around Arrian and himself.

Arrian felt at ease for the first time since he was first approached by the dragons.

They felt familiar to him; somehow, he wasn't sure just how familiar.

The red dragon lowered his face until it was level with Arrian's.

Arrian looked at it blood red eyes, which were slits much like a cat, except where a cat had one vertical slit, the red dragon had two slits; one vertical, the other horizontal.

The cross they formed was deadly in appearance. Arrian stared at its eyes, never wavering, and then the dragon faded leaving behind a glowing red aura.

The aura surrounded Arrian, but it didn't force him to scream; instead, it made him uncomfortable, yes, but he wasn't hit with obscene pain like before.

Arrian dropped to one knee, and placed both hands on the dark ground waiting as the red aura slowly faded.

The other dragon's watched, when Arrian looked up, his eyes were identical to the red dragon's;— slits in a cross shape.

He stood up and walked over to the dragons and said something which he could not hear, but the dragons simply nodded their heads and flew off.

Arrian looked around and noticed that even in the complete darkness around him, he could now see, and see extremely well.

As he moved forward he fell.

It was Thursday morning and Arrian fell out of bed.

His body hit the floor with a very sickening thud, a thud that was quite hard even though the bed was not that high off the ground.

Helen walked out of the bathroom when she heard the sickening thud.

"Arrian are you alright?" Asked a worried Helen.

Standing up, he gave her a smile, "I'm fine. Boy that was a strange experience!"

Seeing he was all right, Helen headed back into the bathroom.

Arrian went to the window and looked outside, it was going to be a beautiful day, if he had looked closer at his reflection he would have noticed his eyes change from grey to red slits and back to grey.

In all, Thursday was a peaceful day, the announcement at Thoran High about the tournament, brought cheers from everyone. Other than that, it was a plain day, very anticlimactic.

It was Friday afternoon and Arrian sat in the locker room.

Helen called him to let him know his sword had been checked in, and would be given to him before the weapons exhibition.

In his gym bag was his karate gi, it had been some time since he used it, but it still fit.

Black pants and a red jacket with a black belt completed his outfit.

He noticed all the other 'experts' had their own style of karate gi. Most were white; one, however, was all black.

He began undressing, so he could put on his uniform.

Helen, Miranda, Cindy, Kailynn, Ashley, Sam, Sarah, and even Sharon were present.

Sharon had been back in her room since her conversation with Ashley that night not that long ago.

Helen finally convinced her to come to Arrian's exhibition, Sharon was reluctant, but in the end Helen got her way.

Now, all of them sat in the gym. The floor was now covered with mats.

In mere moments, the bleachers in the gym were filled to capacity.

They all watched as some of the fighters began emerging from the locker room.

"There's Daddy!" Sarah yelled as she pointed to Arrian as he walked out.

"Calm down, sweetness." Cindy said.

"Oh, I didn't know Greg was participating." Sam said to no one in particular.

Kailynn's ears perked up when Sam mentioned a boy's name.

"Oh is he your boyfriend." She teased Sam.

Sam shook her head.

"He's new here, kinda like you guys, except more so. He and his sister just transferred in a couple weeks after the semester started." Sam said while looking around.

She spotted Angela and pointed to her out to Kailynn.

Greg walked into the gym feeling the need to release some stress, he knew he couldn't go all out, but just the sparing should be enough to help him relax.

He spotted his sister and his father in the stands and nodded to them.

As he was about to turn, he spotted Samantha chatting with some girl he had never met. He had to admit the girl was simply stunning. If he hadn't laid eyes on Sam first, he might have considered asking her out. As it was, Sam dominated his thoughts; he desperately wanted to ask her out.

Arrian made his way to his family in the lower stands.

"I didn't think you would be able to get seats this close." He said.

"It's a perk of my job." Cindy said.

"Daddy!" Sarah said bursting from Cindy's lap.

Arrian simply caught her and held her up. She kissed him on both cheeks a gesture he returned. Still holding her he excused himself, and walked over to the officials. After exchanging a few words with them, he bowed as much as he could while holding Sarah.

He walked over to his family again, and handed Sarah back to Cindy, telling Sarah, "Be good, princess."

He received a nod from Sarah. With that, he made his way back to the contestants' circle.

"Ladies and Gentleman! Welcome! Tonight, a very special show will be taking place! Talented young men will demonstrate their abilities in the martial arts and its many forms!" Said one of the officials who was acting as announcer.

"First, we have, the beginners matches, followed by the intermediates. Then things heat up while those that have earned expert ranks show us their skills with weapons. The winner will have a match with our current World Champion, Jake Forber."

Jake Forber stood up from his seat and waved to the crowd. He was a small slender man very lean muscle adorning his body.

The audience cheered and applauded.

"Now, for the weapons exhibition, the weapons have been checked in and are being kept safely until they are needed. For those of you wondering how, it is possible for weapons or even a martial arts tournament to be held in a high school the answer is simple. I bribed the school board."

A couple chuckles were heard here and there, but the audience remained mostly silent.

"Seriously, we approached the school board with a plan to promote physical health and what better way than martial arts. "

"Security is present, not normal security if you will, all security members are at least 3^rd degree black belts, you would need more skill than normal to stop one of them."

"Now, ladies and gentleman, let's start the contest."

The intermediate matches were almost over. The last two fighters were facing off at the moment; it was a three-point tie, and the next fall would determine the winner.

Both were good, with very little more skill, they would be in the expert rank.

Both contestants rushed at each other and punches and kicks flew at impressive speeds.

Then in an instant the match was over.

The smaller of the two boys, had ducked a spinning jump kick, and as quick as can be he countered with a roundhouse kick while the other boy was still in midair. His kick caught the boy in the chest completely unprepared; he took the full brunt of the kick and was sent flying a few feet back.

Cheers erupted from the crowd when the official called match.

On the bench some of the expert contestants whistled, very impressed with the kid's moves.

"Ladies and gentlemen, that is one of the best matches I have ever had the pleasure of witnessing. Now, we will have a brief intermission while we prepare for the expert contestants and the final bouts of today."

All eight experts were in a circle with two officials inside the circle.

"We will give each of you a number, that number is yours to determine who your opponent will be. When your number is called, walk up to the official and collect your weapon. Now, this is very important. There will be no deathblows! I repeat; No Death Blows! Do all of you understand me?"

All contestants nodded their assent.

After having received their numbers, they went back to the bench.

"Ladies and gentlemen, it is time for the weapons exhibition matches. Please welcome contestants numbers two and seven."

Two teens stood up, walked over to the officials, and they both collected katana.

The katana themselves were rather plain, not really made for use in matches.

That was very evident as the contestants bowed to each other. At the official's signal, they swung at each other.

With a rather loud clank, both katana broke in two pieces. That left both fighters quite embarrassed and more than one official was perplexed.

The officials agreed that the match would continue using bokken. After two were brought out, the fighters again clashed.

This time things went smoothly; the bokken cracked against each other, but didn't break.

The taller of the two fighters took the exhibition match five to three.

The hand-to-hand match was won by one boy in a sweep, five to zero.

"Contestants Four and Six!"

Greg stood and walked over to the officials as the other competitor followed behind.